Incredibly, Premier John Brumby has announced another duck shooting season for Victoria!

(Australian Wood Duck - a "pest" - source: Wikimedia Commons)

Incredibly, Premier John Brumby has announced another duck shooting season for Victoria!

It will run for 10 weeks from March 20, about two weeks shorter than normal.

The Government says conditions have improved in parts of Victoria and game ducks can be hunted sustainably. Hunters would be permitted to increase their take from last year's two per bag to five.

Victoria's wetlands are drying and becoming degraded through soil compaction, increased nutrients, weeds, grazing, trampling and erosion. Waterbird numbers are reported to be down by 82% since 1983.

As a result of the threats to wetland ecosystems, many species that depend on wetlands are now threatened with extinction. According to Birds Australia , many species, such as waders and other waterbirds, are threatened by changes to wetlands and coastal environments.

Acting Minister for Environment and Climate Change Tim Holding said the compromise struck a balance between ensuring sustainable duck numbers and the interests of hunters.

There is a small increase in waterbirds in one location in South Australia, not in Victoria. This fact is considered sufficient for a shooting them!

This is pure politically-driven idiocy, considering that with so few waterbirds left in Victoria, any breeding pairs will be shot out of the sky and the next generation will be non-existent.

RSPCA Victorian president Hugh Wirth said the decision showed a "blatant disregard for the welfare of Australian wildlife".
"It is no secret that thousands of ducks are wounded horrifically each and every season and die a slow and painful death," he said. He said 87 per cent of the community supports a ban, but the community's voice had fallen on deaf ears.

There is a total ban on the taking of Blue-winged Shoveler, Pink-eared Duck and Hardhead (White-eyed Duck).

The remaining five species – Pacific Black Duck, Grey Teal, Mountain Duck (Australian Shelduck), Maned Duck (Wood Duck) and Chestnut Teal – may be hunted.

Warrnambool Field and Game Club secretary Graham Kemp said duck hunting season was necessary to cull species which were regarded as pests. "Wood ducks in particular have been pests and have a deleterious effect on dam water and get into farmers' crops. We are legally, responsible shooters."

Wood Ducks:

The Australian Wood Duck is found in grasslands, open woodlands, wetlands, flooded pastures and along the coast in inlets and bays. It is also common on farmland with dams, as well as around rice fields, sewage ponds and in urban parks. It feeds mainly on grasses. It will often be found around deeper lakes that may be unsuitable for other waterbirds' foraging, as it prefers to forage on land. The Australian Wood Duck forms monogamous breeding pairs that stay together year round.

As some breeds of kangaroos, the Australian Wood Duck has “benefited from the creation of dams and irrigated crops on farmlands”. This assumes that Wood Ducks were not plentiful and that water was less available before European settlement. It can sometimes “damage crops and pastures”.

Why make this environmentally damning decision? It will provide entertainment for a privileged few shooters!

(Cartoon by permission of Carol Drew)
“Ornithologists predict it will take many years of flooding for waterbird numbers to return. With the looming disastrous impact of global warming it is imperative that we look to the future and protect our native waterbirds. Since their numbers have declined by 82% across eastern Australia over the last 25 years, it is evident they will need all the help they can get to survive into the future,”
Coalition Against Duck Shooting Campaign Director Laurie Levy said.